


Blue-eyed Girl

by MissGreLig



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Not So Modern Times, F/M, Fluff, It's my second story in less than 5 days, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissGreLig/pseuds/MissGreLig
Summary: (17-05-2020: I've modified some things I found odd while a second reading. It does not modify at all the storyline!)
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe & Marilla Cuthbert, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Marilla Cuthbert & Anne Shirley, Marilla Cuthbert & Matthew Cuthbert & Anne Shirley
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54
Collections: anne with an e





	Blue-eyed Girl

**Author's Note:**

> As the tag said, it is my second story in less than five days; but once I start to create stories, I cannot stop.
> 
> As usual, this story has been posted as soon as I have finished it, so I'm sorry for any mistakes and erros I might have made while writing it. Writing in English has become one of my favourite things lately, as I'm trying to improve my vocabulary and my writing skills in the language. And nobody asked about that info, but I just felt like sharing it with you.  
> Also, I must apologise in advance about the possible inaccuracy of some of this story events, but I'm still a bit younger and I haven't experienced myself the things told in this story.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like it! :)

It was an average late spring night at Green Gables. Summer was coming, as nights tended to be warmer (even hotter) and allowed people to sleep in light, comfortable pyjamas. Without a doubt, it was Matthew’s favourite season despite the fact that his working schedule changed in order to avoid as much as possible the heat while working. Besides, this time reminded him of that night, a couple years ago, when his sister Marilla and he decided to adopt someone to help Matthew with the farm… Ending up taking care of the most peculiar girl he ever met; his most peculiar girl: his daughter Anne. Matthew succumbed to sleep happily with that idea in mind, wishing that every time he thought about it, he could stop time and live in that moment forever. Anne wasn’t his flesh and blood, but he felt like it the very first second he saw her.

Matthew slept deeply for a while, but suddenly, a scream woke him up. “ _ Anne _ ”, he uttered, as he stood up on his bed and led himself to the stairs, taking them two at a time to reach her bedroom as soon as he could. Once he was in the corridor, he saw Marilla’s room’s door open too and checked if her sister was in trouble… But she wasn’t. Imagining the worst, he approached Anne's room, finding Marilla kneeled next to Anne, grabbing her daughter’s hand as Anne winced and cried and huffed in her bed. Matthew didn’t react: he was so shocked by the scene he had in front of him that he just stood in the middle of Anne’s childhood room, eyes fixed in his daughter but without really seeing her.

“Matthew, for God’s sake, go fetch the midwife! It’s coming!” Marilla screamt at him, bringing him back to reality and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. He approached, somehow smiled at Anne, kissed her temple, and flew out of the bedroom to his, dressing himself a little and taking the keys of his car.

Once he got into the car, started it, and got himself into the road, he thought out loud:

“If this will always be the same, this is the last time that bastard makes my little girl pregnant”.

* * *

Meanwhile, Marilla was just beside Anne, this time sitting on a chair, cleaning every now and then the sweat from her daughter’s forehead and trying to calm and assist her the best she could. Anne was, all things considered, a little bit calmer, as she asked Marilla to check the clock and to take notes of the contractions.

“He told me to do it, just in case he wasn’t around when the baby decided to come”. Anne said, with a small smirk on her lips. Her face was all red, matching the colour of her hair a little. Knowing that would do no good to her, Marilla kept that comment to herself and asked something she wanted to say about three contractions ago:

“Speaking of the devil, where is he? I know right after supper he called early night, but I figured out he would be here when I came in.”

“He’s attending someone in a nearby farm… You know, the prodigal son turned doctor comes back once and everyone gets ill or needs his assistance whenever the hour of day is, but I can’t remember who it was this time… I’m sorry.” Anne saddened a little, feeling for a moment a bad partner, as she couldn’t remember anything he said to her earlier that night.

“Fiddlesticks, child!” Marilla said, making both of them smile: Anne wasn’t a child anymore. “Enough with the hours of night it is and in your state. I didn’t go into labour myself, but I did assist in many more than I ever wanted to and none of those women were coherent with words and thoughts. Imagine Rachel! Mumbling and sputtering nonsense all the time and screaming she wouldn’t get pregnant again… To end up with ten kids!” Both of them laughed, stopping when another contraction hit Anne.

“The baby was supposed to come within two weeks, but he or she decided to come earlier.” Anne said after recovering herself a little and caressing her belly.

“Maybe she cannot wait any longer to meet you.” Marilla managed to say, tears coming to her eyes as emotion hit her.

“Oh, Marilla! Don’t cry!” Anne said too, tears already in her eyes.”I bet the baby wanted to meet the grandparents too. I know I have always thanked you for everything you did for me, but I want to do it once again.” Anne grabbed Marilla’s hand and squeezed it tighter. Marilla did the same, soaking all the emotion in the room and keeping all of it in her heart, near that memory of the moment she met the little version of the woman next to her and stealing her heart. After a couple of minutes in silence, Anne seemed to realise something: “Marilla, you said  _ she _ before. Like you knew the baby inside me is a girl… Are you certain of that?”, she asked, a little bit wonderstruck with her mother’s predictions.

“No at all, dear!” Marilla sort of screamed in fake insult knowing her daughter’s tendency to make almost everything a fairy tale, trying to bring laughter to her daughter. “I’m still an average woman, not a clairvoyant, witch or whatever you think of!” She smiled. “But I don’t know why, I think that person inside you is a beautiful girl. As beautiful as her mother.”

“I want it to be much alike to the father instead; but I don't mind it gets some things from me, though” Anne added. She could be a grown-up and a successful woman and in a relationship with someone who adored and worshiped her, but she still felt insecure about herself.

“Sure she will! I think he must be blamed too for the state you are right now!” And, again, another contraction hit Anne.

“He surely is...” Anne managed to say, smiling at the memory of that afternoon, back at their home nine months ago, when they knew after crying each other’s name in ecstasy they just created a new life in the world. “Did you and his father ever…?” Anne asked, before she could hold her tongue.

“... did what you and his son did? I bet you can see that we didn’t, Anne.” Marilla responded, cheeks scarlet after Anne’s question. “But I bet John would be glad his son would sort of put the course of life on the right track again. I do not regret anything that happened between us; I really loved Gilbert’s mother and the things that brought us to be here now, but sometimes I couldn’t help imagine how things would have happened if I were still with him.”

“I see...” Anne stated. She knew it was an itchy topic for Marilla and she always let it be, but now she just couldn’t. Anne blamed it to the situation she was herself in, but also congratulated herself of the boldness of asking and that Marilla wasn’t cross at all with her, as she always imagined she would be. “Gilbert always tells me that; that his father would be glad and happy for us, but... I don’t know, hearing it from you it’s even more credible.”

Marilla sniffed and cleaned a tear crossing her face: “He would be all excited with his first grandchild, sure.” Changing the topic of the conversation, as hearing someone’s car approaching, Marilla stood up and looked out from Anne’s room’s window. “Thank God it’s Matthew! Anne, darling, I love you and I love that person you are bearing since from the first time I learnt about it.”

“I love you too-” And another contraction, accompanied by a scream, came. 

* * *

“I’d better say to all these people that I’m not their doctor next Sunday after picking up Marilla and Mary from church. To wake me up at midnight because of a wound he could have treated himself! What the heck!” Gilbert agreed with himself while driving the few kilometres left till reaching Green Gables. Anne and he agreed to pass the first few days of their summer holidays in her childhood house before they moved to his childhood house with Bash, Mary and little Delphine, and then headed back to Charlottetown to deliver their baby there. He knew that was a crazy idea, and the least thing Anne needed in the last two weeks of her pregnancy, but Anne’s mood had been a roller-coaster ride lately, and he knew that she was doing it as a kind of reminder of their life before they were, even, a steady couple; that is, of their childhood lives.

Gilbert smiled… He fell in love with her even before he knew what love was. And the reminder of it would be forever engraved as a scar on his temple. The exact moment he fell in love with her was when she whacked him with a book after him calling her carrots and pulled one of her red plaits back in Secondary School. It took for Anne several years to realise her feelings for him, but better late than never. He deserved that book on his head and, with time, he knew it; but now whenever that nickname came out, it carried out another different reaction: kisses and kisses till they get laid out somewhere totally naked. In fact, last time that happened Anne got pregnant. He knew that such a thing was already something most of the Avonlea citizens did not approve of at all. Pregnant before marriage! What a disgrace for them!  _ Fiddlesticks! _ 1980 and people were still that close-minded! As far as Gilbert knew, they were more than married; and they didn’t need to say it before any minister or judge to make it more real… But now that the baby was about to come, he knew he needed to speak with Anne about it; they were officially a family.

Gilbert wanted to have asked her before all of this happened, but while both their professional careers (he, a doctor and she, a teacher) grew and succeeded and they were just very busy enjoying their relationship as it was, he did not see the right moment to pop the question. Till that afternoon, where he felt a little bit  _ playful _ , happy and just thirsty for his Anne, he called her the infamous nickname and forgot about everything for a while… Just after finishing, he felt something inside him that said that was their last time like that; checking Anne’s gaze to discover that she felt that thing too.

The course of his thoughts faded away as he parked on the old barn, trying to not disturb too much the animals resting there, and saw Matthew’s car quite close to the porch and almost all the lights inside the house turned on.

_ Anne. _

He entered into the house, screaming her name and taking the stairs up to the bedroom, to find Matthew in the middle of the corridor pacing up and down, waiting.

“Matthew, is she ok?” Gilbert reached to him, shaken and paled imagining the worst.

“The baby’s coming.” Matthew only said, a little bit upset with the man he had in front of him, trying to hide the joy that grew and grew any second it passed within him.

Gilbert’s eyes went wide. Their child was coming! Two weeks earlier than it was thought! He grinned, still shaken, and tried to enter into the room where his Anne and his child were. When he came in, he was pushed back by someone he didn’t really expect to see there.

“Miss Prince! What a coincidence!”

“Oh, Dr Blythe! I didn’t expect you to find you here! Please, come in and help me check the patient.” The young woman said. She was a brunette twenty-ish woman, beautiful indeed, with brown eyes and a little bit coloured skin, younger than Gilbert and Anne were. They met once in a symposium about pregnancy a year ago, as Gilbert was just asked to attend to it even though it wasn’t his field in medicine and Miss Prince attended to know about the latest discoveries and advances in deliveries. Places such as Avonlea still required midwives when the hospital wasn’t very close for women in labour.

Before Gilbert could say anything else, he found himself back in the room again, watching Anne on all fours on the bed, all red and damped in sweat, groaning. He could see that her knickers were off on the floor, and he just knew that that was just to make checkings better and easier. For a moment, he felt like the audience of a very realistic play in a theatre; not as a doctor himself. And seeing Anne in pain as she was felt to Gilbert as if a macabre joke was played on him. Miss Prince, totally oblivious to the doctor’s state, was on his side, informing him of everything.

“The patient has just dilated three centimetres. I just checked before you entered here. They have noted everything down on that paper, and her mother here is being very helpful. So I have everything under control… I don’t even believe you are going to be required here!” she chuckled. Changing her mood, she added “I didn’t know you were even here… Is this your assigned place or just a place to relax? Are you planning to stay longer? I could show you around, if you-”

“Gilbert! Oh, Gil, you’re here!” Anne said, cutting off the chattering of the midwife and Gilbert’s dream state.

“Hi, love. Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be fine”, kneeled on the other side of the bed as soon as Anne stopped speaking, holding Anne’s gaze and smiling reassuringly to her. He took off some treads off her face and kissed her temple.

“Oh, I see… You are familiar with the patient.” Miss Prince muttered to herself, with a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. With excitement, trying to hide that disappointed tone, said: “Then you are to attend the birth of your own child, Dr Blythe!”

“Indeed he is!” Marilla said. “Go, Miss Prince, and help me to prepare everything it will be needed for the arrival. I bet now the doctor is with his wife, you feel yourself a little bit covered up to guide me.”

“Sure, Mrs.” Miss Prince smirked, and accompanied Marilla out of the room, leaving Anne and Gilbert alone.

“What was that?” Gilbert asked more to himself than Anne, thunderstruck with Marilla’s words.

“The midwife was trying getting you to her bed. She even checked if you had a ring on your hand.” Anne answered, trying to focus on some point in the wall in front of her. Gilbert chuckled at it and made Anne look at him both surprised and upset. “What are you laughing at?”

“You saying that in the position you find yourself is a little bit funny. I know you are not jelaous, but the tone of it and you kneeled like that...”

“Do you think I’m now in the position to jok-?” Anne didn’t finish to say, as another contraction came, this time harder.

Gilbert stood up and tried to massage her lower back. He didn’t know much, but he knew that could make her some good… at least emotionally speaking. “Time to play doctors?” he heard Anne say, with a spark of teasing in her voice.

“I thought you said you weren’t in a position to joke around… Wait, you didn’t even finish saying it.” He grinned at the same time he reached for the notes in the nightstand. “I see everything is under control… Do you feel something odd from what the doctor told us it would be like?” Gilbert checked.

“No… Only that I want this to finish now!” she cried out.

“Soon, love. Believe me, I want it to finish now too. I think I won’t let you pass through this situation ever again...”

“Don’t lie, slateface. We both know that’s a promise either of us cannot pledge.” She looked over her shoulder, smiling at the man she loved the most.

“Well… You’re right. I love you both.” And Anne screamed again.

* * *

It was getting light, and on an average day, Matthew would be standing up off the bed and getting his things ready to work the land. But that day wasn’t an average day anymore. From now on, he knew that the fifth of July, 1980 would be his second favourite date in his life. According to Marilla, who had obliged him almost an hour ago to go to the parlour and try to rest a little bit meanwhile the rest were with Anne, it was just about minutes till Anne and Gilbert were three.

Matthew tried his best to rest… But hearing her daughter scream, cry and suffer on the first floor wasn’t making him any good. He knew nature was like that… And he didn’t want to compare an animal to her daughter, but he had assisted many births of cows to know that it wasn’t a pleasant moment. He checked his Casio watch for the millionth time in an hour and checked it was still 6:30 am. Just as he was lowering his arm, Marilla came into the parlour.

“Is the baby here?” Matthew stood up off the armchair, ready to go wherever his daughter and grandchild were.

“Not yet… But I bet it is going to be in a couple of minutes surely”, Marilla replied, eyes full of emotion and tears, as she sat on the other armchair next to Matthew’s. “I know it’s not actually that… but the midwife kicked me out of the room; she highly recommended to ‘let the mother breathe’ while delivering and I left. I mean, I feel better knowing the father is there and can be helpful if he is needed. And it's his place to be rather mine.”

“Hmmm” Matthew nodded. After a couple of minutes in silence and listening to Anne's screams a bit frustrated, Matthew couldn’t hold back his tears and sobbed. “I’m so proud of her… Our little Anne.”

Marilla, also crying, held her brother’s hand and agreed. “We didn’t know how to be parents, but I look at her and I know we did a great job.”

Both of them cried, with happy tears, while minutes passed and the house was filled with other cries and  _ “C’mon, Mrs. Blythe, it’s almost here”  _ or  _ “Anne, keep doing it, you are doing so good.” _

Suddenly, the house was in silence. For some agonising seconds, nothing could be heard…

Until a baby started to cry.

* * *

Anne woke up, a little bit agitated.  _ What’s going on?, _ wondered herself. It took a little bit to realise that it was not night time, but day -even afternoon!- and she was laid in her bed, but in clean sheets. Even she had her nightdress changed to another one much comfier and fresher. Even though she felt a little bit sore and tired, she actually felt quite good.

She observed the room. She knew it was as always, but now something had changed. It was not only her childhood’s bedroom, but also the place where her first child was born. If that were told her first day in that room, she would cry upset about that: both because of it would be a terrible lie to tell to her and because she didn’t want to do such a thing. And now she felt the happiest person on earth.

She looked to her right and found them: Gilbert was on a rocking chair, balancing back and forth while sleeping, and on his bare chest he kept their daughter as close to his heart as possible. She remembered that tip the midwife gave to Gilbert right before sleep overcame her, of putting the baby on his chest and close to his heart. She directed her gaze back to Gilbert’s face. He had been crying, the traces of his tears were noticeable on his cheeks. As well, Anne could tell that he wasn’t deeply asleep, so she called him softly.

“Anne, you’re awake!” He grinned at her and grabbed her hand tightly. “You are the bravest person I ever met, and I love you, and I thank you for everything, but now especially for her.” That last statement was said looking at the little person in his arms.

“I love you too and I thank you for her” Anne repeated. They kissed, trying to not upset their daughter, and Anne asked worriedly: “Did I pass out, or make you feel terrified about something wrong with me?” 

“No”, Gilbert answered, with a small smile on his face, knowing exactly what she meant. “Nothing happened at all. You reacted so well to everything, and you were aware of everything that happened… But you were tired: travelling from Charlottetown, visiting Bash and Mary, play with Dellie, coming here and helping prepare supper and all the hours without resting well just knocked you out once you relaxed a little. But you are fine, really, and this little one here is fine too.” Both newly-parents smiled. “You’d better hold her too. I think she miss you a bit.” Gilbert handed the little one in her arms and put back a t-shirt before jumping into bed with his girls.

“What time is it?” Anne asked out of the blue.

“Five in the afternoon,” Gilbert replied.

“Oh my God, Gilbert, you must be shattered too! And starving!” she worried, lifting a hand and caressing his face and hair.

“I ate about an hour ago, and I’ll sleep later, when our little’s grandparents come here. They’re out, they need to make some errands to feed us all and I bet by Matthew's enthusiasm they will tell everyone they see about her.” Both laughed at that. Matthew was a frugal with words, but knew when to speak.

“We need to think about a name.” Anne said.

“Hmmm” Gilbert agreed. “Anything that crosses your mind?”

“There are a lot of things right now I can’t decide on one.” she smiled, looking at her beautiful girl, who happened to open the eyes and fix them on Anne's grinning and happily tired face. They were still a bit blurry, but both parents could see that they were going to be as blue as her mother’s. Anne kissed the curly, dark hair of the child, and looked at her, thinking of a name. “Have you thought about it yet?” enquired to Gilbert.

“Not much, really. You are better with names than I am... But, I don’t know, everytime I look at her I see the fields and flowes of Avonlea.”

“How’s that?” Anne wondered, smiling at Gilbert’s imagination.

“I don’t know… Maybe it’s because she was born in the same place I did, and that you were meant to be here, that all those ideas and emotions meet at some point in my mind and connect it to Avonlea and it reminds me of when we were young, and meet each other and were a little bit more connected with nature… I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sen-.”

“It does, Gilbert. It totally does.” Anne assured him, and liked the direction of their thoughts. “We don’t have to think of anything yet, you know?”

“I do…” They stood a little in silence, observing their daughter getting asleep, and Gilbert suggested: “What about Flora?”

“Flora?” Anne asked, but likely savouring it.  _ Flora… _ She liked it a lot. “Why?”

“First, I must say that it is related to what I said before: I find orchards beautiful when they are blooming. Then, Avonlea in Spring is one of the images I like the most. Marilla’s garden is delightful to look at. I met Bash in Spring and made him my brother and mentor. We decided to stop playing with ourselves and started our relationship on a Spring day. Our baby was born when flowers were in all their splendour. The only thing you know about your biological family is through a flowers’ book. And… Most importantly… I-”

“Yes” Anne cut him off, with tears full of bliss.

“I haven’t even-”

“But I know what you are going to say.” she ventured.

“And… What is it, if I shall know?” He teased.

“That for all those reasons, and more you can’t imagine know, but are important for us, she must be named like that.”

“Yes, sort of. But there is something else.”

“And what is it?”

Gilbert stood up, and took a small bag of the pockets of his denims. He used to carry it with him since he decided to ask her, but it never was the right time. Until now. He sat down again on the bed and put Anne’s palm up, as if she was about to hold something. Gilbert took something out of the bag and put it on the palm. It was a golden ring, with a little esmerald on the top.

“It was from my mother’s. And I know you don’t like booming things, so I found it perfect for you… And I did want to do it before we even knew about the-”

“Flora Shirley C. Blythe.” Anne confirmed.

“... Flora Shirley”, repeated Gilbert, “I know I should have popped the question diff-”

“Stop talking for once, Gilbert! I am said to be very talkative, but so are you!” Anne scolded him, playfully. “I love you, and I don't need to hear anything from you because I know my answer, and, even though I already felt married to you, I do. I do want to spend the rest of my life with you and get married to you, slateface.”

Gilbert put the ring on Anne’s finger and kissed her, although eager and happy, carefully to not disturb Flora Shirley C. Blythe.

“I love you, Carrots. And I will be eternally thankful for you."

**Author's Note:**

> Please, stay safe, give kuddos and comment if you liked it! Thank you in advance! :)  
> Tumblr: @missgrelig


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